Validating Earth Science

I've come to realize how truly insignificant -- because of their instability, tendency to produce conflict, and mercurial nature -- most of the religious, political, and social ballyhoo is, compared to the science of our planet, solar system, and galaxy. Squabbling over borders and domains truly is rubbish, when we glance at our global "home". And considering what "Wired" concluded, only about 24 humans have actually seen the entire earth from space with their own eyes, we could grow a lot by attuning ourselves to our spatial placement.

It's especially easy to be keen on global awareness on "earth day", but we should develop not just a year-long reverence for our planet, but a perpetual fascination with our entire placement in galactic space.

Expanding our conscious scope to understanding spiral galaxies, Alpha Centari, dark matter, and neutron stars is just so much more meaningful and enduring. That said, let's delve into a quick synopsis of our closest star cluster.

Although triple-star system Alpha Centari, aka Rigel (1) , at 4.4 light-years, is the closest star system (smaller than a star cluster galaxy, but still a fairly decent sized arrangement of stars) to our own solar system, it is actually bigger and brighter than our own sun. To get technical, only Alpha Centari A, the largest star of the triple-star Alpha Centari system, is brighter than our sun. Actually, to get hyper-technical at 4.2 light years away, Proxima Centari, the mini red dwarf (2) star of Alpha Centari is the closest star (3) (other than our sun) to earth. However, because of its proximity, almost all interstellar science fiction mentions the Centari star system as a travel waypoint of sorts. Furthermore, in actual space travel, the first inter-galactic checkpoint for robotic probes will most likely be Alpha Centari. Although this is just a single minute, iota of spatial knowledge, learning about Centari is most certaintly a vital point to validating the significance of our planet.


1. Breaking down the etymology, Alpha, in Alpha Centari is simply indicating it as the brightest star system in the southern-located Centarus constellation, while Rigel Kentarus, in Arabic refers to "foot of the centaur"

2. Regarding Proxima Centari's red dwarf size, a red dwarf fuses hydrogen to helium at a very slow rate, emitting very little light (about 1 ten thousandth of the sun). Being fully connective, red dwarfs make up for their size with longevity, and can burn trillions of years if their mass is small. The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram classifies stars based on luminosity, color, and temperature. At the top of the charts are Supergiants, followed by Bright Giants, Giants, Main Sequenc (in which our sun is classified), White Dwarfs, and then red dwarfs.

3. In regards to proximity to earth, after the three Alpha Centari star, there is Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, Lalande 21185, and then the A and B stars from the Sirius cluster.